Ichigos.com Super Grand Redesign

[Gand]

After many moons of setting up a database, parsing the data into tables, and writing a bunch of php and sql scripts, Ichigos.com's Grand Super Backend Redesign is ready for some real testing! I consolidated the anime sheet music section from over 2000 lines of HTML to a mere 120 lines of php code! Whew!

The new Ichigos.com is not only cleaner on the backend, but has some nifty front-end features, like a listing of all titles, and a comprehensive search engine!

Before I deploy it to the world, I need your help to make sure there are no bugs in the code. Please try to break it! If you notice anything that looks odd, funky, weird, out of whack, or f'ed up, please post here and let me know. Please provide as much detail as possible.

Here is the link to the development version: http://solsar.com/dev/ichigos.com/

Note: Only the Anime Sheet Music section is on the new database, so the game section is still flat html.

Thanks for your help, and I hope this will be of great use to the Ichigos community!^_^

EDIT: oh, and if everything seems to be working fine, let me know too, lol. Just so I know people are testing it XD

[Spoonpuppet]

It all seems to be working so far. Good work, Gand. Thanks.

[Sashiro]

Works for me. Good job, Gand!

[Gand]

thanks! Actually I'm going to take the test site back down in order to add the game music stuff in there as well... I'll open it back up for more thourough testing once that is in.

[Gand]

ok, anime and game sheet music is now combined. please test away!

http://solsar.com/dev/ichigos.com/

[random_tangent]

the only thing that I can find that doesn't work is the link to Anime music from the mainpage. When you click on the link (http://solsar.com/dev/ichigos.com/animemusic/) it's coming up as a 403 forbidden error.

[Gand]

Originally posted by random_tangent@Mar 14 2005, 01:31 AM
the only thing that I can find that doesn't work is the link to Anime music from the mainpage. When you click on the link (http://solsar.com/dev/ichigos.com/animemusic/) it's coming up as a 403 forbidden error.
Thanks! I've fixed the rewrite so it works now. I had rigged it so older links like /animemusic/n.shtml redirected to /sheets.shtml?tq=n, but I forgot about just /animemusic/ X_X.

[Gand]

anyone notice anything else? *poises to deploy*

[Gand]

Posted to Ichigos.com (http://ichigos.com)! Please let me know if you find any issues!

[Neko Koneko]

Whoo ~ Go Gand ~ :drinking:

[Oblivion]

I just happened to notice that when you go to the final fantasies, FF9 is placed between 4 and 5. I think its just because its in roman numerals and alphabetical order. Nothing big.

[Neko Koneko]

After taking another look I realised the following:

You blended the anime and the game sheet sections X_X

Personally I think that looks a tad messy and it is confusing for people looking for sheets I think - people looking for Fruits basket sheets will be killed while scrolling to that gigantic list of Final Fantasy sheets that completely hog the F page, just to name an example. Personally I think it would be an improvement to keep the same system the old site had and keep the anime and the game music in seperate sections - if this is possible of course.

[Gand]

yeah, final fantasy is a problem... it does mess things up. I might just make a separate page for that since there's so many. the blending makes the searching so much easier though :unsure:

[Neko Koneko]

Why not just slap all the games in a seperate section? There isn't that much game sheet music compared to the anime right? X_X

[Gand]

Originally posted by Angelic@Mar 26 2005, 09:12 AM
Why not just slap all the games in a seperate section? There isn't that much game sheet music compared to the anime right? X_X
Let me explain my thinking on this decision. My primary objective in this redesign was to enhance usability and managability while maintaining look and feel of the site. If the site is less usable as a result, then I've done something wrong and it needs to be re-evaluated.

Here are some of the factors that led me to the choice to combine anime and game sheet music: User complaints about difficult of locating game sheet music. Upon investigation they were looking around the anime section and not game. I would have written this off as user stupidity, but I have recieved multiple complaints about it.
Although there are not currently any on the site, there are plenty of titles which come from both a game and an anime, such as Ragnarok Online.
If the game and sheet music are separated, there will potentially be two search areas. This could get quite confusing for a user who ends up in the wrong area.
Ichigo's core competency is the Anime music; the game music is sort of an extra. Because of this it may not need it's own section.
The new database design does count for differences in types of sheet music titles, but implementation is more complex.

Here are the problems arising: Final Fantasy is dominating the F section
Users may be confused when looking for game sheet music specifically.

Here are some potential solutions, ranging from doing nothing to making drastic changes: 1. Leave as is
2. Make another 'letter' for Final Fantasy, with a reference link in F. This would clear up the mess in the F section.
3. Separate browsing back into Anime and Game, but keep Search and List the same. This way
4. Completely re-separate anime and game, resulting in two separate search and list functions

I don't like 1 because it leaves a mess in the F section. 2 could be done pretty easily. 3 would take more work, but could be done. 4 is pretty major and I personally think it would make the site much harder to use.

I'm open to all suggestions, but please explain your reasoning in detail so I know what you are thinking.

[Neko Koneko]

I suppose you have a point then (wth the music coming from game/ anime like ragnarok) so I reckon 2 is the best option (since it's also the easiest for you). :)

[Zucriy Amsuna]

I went to the home page, found there was no game sheet music, and read some thing here and there. I find it a nice redesign, especially with the search, now! Maybe you can add the links to the search and the list to the 'bar' on the left side. And Final Fantasy can probably have its own page (like 'FF', for example ???).

[zippy]

nope. nothing ish asploded. ^^ everything is working fine,though the layout is a bit old,you might wanna make a new one if you have time. ^^

[atma]

this looks great! it really goes well with my firefox skin!